New Left

The New Left refers to radical, often Communist or anarchist, political parties and movements which emerged in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Mexico and elsewhere during the 1960s. It operated in opposition to established liberal and Socialist parties, opposed the Cold War, denounced capitalism, and was a cultural rebellion that involved uses of drugs, music and sex that stunned the older generation.

Contents

Background

The movement flourished into the 1970s and faded in importance after 1980. The New Left was a political reaction against the acceptance of capitalism by the major established parties. It was a generational revolt, dominated by "red diaper babies" (whose parents had been active in the old left), and was strongest on university campuses. The old bastions of left-wing strength, especially the labor unions, generally rejected the New Left. In the 21st century the remnants of the New Left dominate the Green Parties in many countries.

Ideology and Influence

The New Left rejected capitalism, technology, bureaucracy and modernity generally. They took the fight to the universities they attended, sometimes seizing offices and denouncing the administration. According to former New Left radical Ronald Radosh, the object was to politicize the university curriculum. Many senior professors of the era were liberals who rejected the aims of the New Left, and generally favored keeping the universities as an apolitical place of learning and debate. Eventually, the phenomenon of "tenured radicals" emerged—that is, New Left graduate students who themselves obtained PhDs.

The New Left encouraged free use of drugs and free sexuality—and (much to the dismay of their elders), long hair styles for men. They found their uniforms in working class clothes such as T-shirts and jeans. Some joined hippie communes where everything was shared in common; most folded after a few months.

Origin

A German-born marxist by the name of Herbert Marcuse is generally regarded as the Father of the New Left.[1] The term "New Left" was coined by C. Wright Mills.[2] Other important influential thinkers leading to the beginning of the New Left include Paul Goodman, William Appleman Williams, and Arnold Kaufman.[3]

Britain

Harold Wilson, on becoming prime minister in 1964, tried to bypass old doctrinal arguments by harnessing nationalized industry to ideas of scientific modernization. But his government was a great failure, not least in its relations with the trade unions, the linchpin of the party since its founding. Wilson represented the older traditions of the Labour Party and never understood the emerging "New Left" with new social roots, new ideas and new styles of political behaviour in the late 1970s. Following the disillusion and demoralization of traditional Labour Party activists with Wilson's government, a more radical and well-educated local Labour leadership appeared at the local level. This bred much disillusionment and launched a new left-wing socialism in the 1970s. The Labour government of 1974-79 added to this division. The left-wing pressure reached its climax in the early 1980s when Conservative Margaret Thatcher was in power but resulted only in heavy defeats for Labour in 1983 and 1987. The general impression in 1989 is of a loss of political and intellectual confidence, with British socialism trapped between a cherished past and an uncertain future.[4]

The Labour Party became a strong proponent of New Left ideas of social reform. Under Wilson in the late 1960s, abortion and homosexuality were decriminalizes, the death penalty abolished and divorce was made easier. Unease from a perceived large number of immigrants from Commonwealth countries also led to four Race Relations Acts, all of which were passed under Labour governments.

A distinguishing feature of the New Left was a tendency to view the Third World as the "vanguard of the revolution", rather than the industrial working class of Europe and North America as the Old Left did. Thus, the imagery and ideology of such Third World revolutionaries as Mao Zedong and Che Guevara were favored. Another distinguishing feature of the New Left was a much greater emphasis on manifestations of cultural rebellion against mainstream society, particularly borrowing from the hippie movement, radical feminism, and black nationalism. Again, was a sharp reaction against the Old Left which was culturally very staid and which saw counter-cultural movements as decadent and capitalistic.